Getting the Dirt on Microbes and Our Health

In 2006 I was diagnosed with Crohn’s disease. My GI doctor, a native of Turkey, commented that Americans don’t eat enough dirt.

Sept. 22, 2016 1:54 pm ET

B. Brett Finlay and Marie-Claire Arrieta present a fascinating and compelling case for the importance of microbial health (“Good & Dirty,” Review, Sept. 17). But by casually including autism in their list of inflammatory and metabolic disorders, they perpetuate the same harmful pseudoscience that has fed the antivaccine movement. Microbial imbalance and antibiotics as the cause of autism? Get in line behind eating wheat, “cold” mothers and leaky guts. Thankfully, autistic self-advocacy groups are countering this narrative, which frames their neurodiversity as disease. Many in the autistic community are reminding society...